Existing foreign investors have disbursed 420 million USD so far this month, a year-on-year increase of 5 percent, the Ministry of Planning and Investment's Foreign Investment Agency has said.

Nevertheless, the agency reported a strong drop of new foreign direct investment influx. Only 40 new projects were granted investment certificates in January with a total registered capital of 182.3 million USD, equivalent to only 15.6 percent of the amount in January last year.

Only five FDI-projects have registered for capital increases this month with a total investment capital addition of 5.3 million USD, a year-on-year fall of 82.6 percent.

Taking into account both new investments and capital increase, in the first month of this year foreign investors registered to invest 187.6 million USD, a year-on-year plunge of 84.3 percent.

The processing and manufacturing industries had attracted most attention from foreign investors with 15 projects, worth 70 million USD (including new and increasing capital), which accounted for 37.3 percent of the total FDI in January.

Second was the construction sector with nine projects involving 63.6 million USD of new and increased capital.

With more than 78.4 million USD of new and additional capital, Ba Ria-Vung Tau was the main destination for foreign investment in January.

Following were HCM City , Ha Tinh and Hung Yen provinces with capital of 46.8 million USD, 20 million USD and 18 million USD, respectively. This month 13 nations and territories invested in Vietnam .

Singapore provided the biggest amount with a total capital of 58.2 million USD, equivalent to 31 percent of the total capital.

The Republic of Korea provided the second biggest with 49.9 million USD. Third was Japan whose firms poured in 26.3 million USD, 14 percent of the total investment.

This agency report is compiled based on the report of provinces and cities up to Jan. 26./.